Confessions of a Hardy Boy
by ForeverChild
Summary: Siblings can be so annoying and overbearing sometimes, but we still love them for who they are. Warts and all. (Don't worry, there aren't any warts.)
1. Chapter 1

_I haven't done one in a while, haha sorry~_

_This is in Frank's POV. Age doesn't matter. _

* * *

Hi. I'm Frank Hardy.

Most people know me as the older, _smarter _brother of the more popular Joe Hardy.

I'm just going to take this opportunity to clear a couple of things up.

I get that he is handsome.

Sure.

I just can't really say myself. But he takes after our mom after all.

Sometimes I see his face and I just want to punch him. (For so many reasons, but i hold myself back.)

But then again, it's probably just me.

And the fact that I have to live with him.

Don't get me wrong.

He can be adorable sometimes.

But a MAJOR goofball.

And annoying.

So annoying.

He always tries so hard to get my attention especially when I don't want it.

Like stealing my slice of pizza and taking a bite out of it before giving it back.

_I forgive him for that._

Like lying down on my bed with his muddy shoes and sweaty clothes.

_I'll…forgive him for that._

Like prank calling Callie with my phone. Telling her that I decided to see someone else.

_It's a bit harder, but I forgive him for that._

Like conveniently forgetting that his room is the one down the hall from the left and not the right, and sleeping in my bed, with his, yes, dirty sweaty clothes.

_I…want to forgive you, bro. I really do._

Like using my computer to do weird things and making it lag like anything.

_Sigh… Joe…please._

Like taking the last cookie from the cookie jar.

_Well…okay. It's Joe… but those cookies…_

Like taking all the blame for us accidentally breaking Mom's favorite lamp.

_Aw Joe…_

Like always volunteering to be bait before I tell him it's dangerous.

_Well…okay. It's Joe…but be careful…_

Like trying to crack his stupid ridiculous jokes to cheer me up in the worst situations.

_Sigh…Joe…please…_

Like jumping off the pier and revealing your hiding place right after the bad guys threw me in the water, hands and feet tied.

_I…want to forgive you, bro. I really do._

Like always trusting me without fail with all my plans even if they seem as completely ridiculous and stupid as his jokes.

_It's a bit harder, but I forgive him for that._

Like always taunting the bad guys to make sure they focus on him more than me even though he will complain about his injuries later way more than I will.

_I'll…forgive him for that._

Like jumping in front of me and taking the bullet that was aimed at _my_ heart, then saying it was nothing.

_I forgive him for that._

I forgive you, Joe.

I forgive you for being a pain-in-the-ass little brother.

I love you for always thinking of me first.

I love you for always trying to be the best you can be.

I love you for saying that you were trying to model after me, but I'm not as great as you think I am.

I love you for being my little brother.

Because you are the best little brother any guy could ask for.

Even if you are annoying.

* * *

_Disclaimer: I don't own the HB_

_I wanted to do something about Frank, but then i realized that it couldn't just be about Frank. _

_There is a reason why it's called the Hardy _Boys_. Plural. _

_You get my drift. _

_I'm gonna try and do one from Joe's POV about Frank, so no worries Frank-peoples. _

_I'll get to you :)._

_Hate it? Hate it less enough to like? Let me know what you think!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Here! Have a chappie!_

_And since i'm feeling extra generous, it's extra long!_

_Yay~s all around!_

_Ok, on to the story now. _

_Frank is 15, Joe is 14._

* * *

You know what bugs me?

What really bugs me?

When Frank thinks he is right all the time.

He isn't.

Especially right now.

/

"I hate you."

Frank laughed. His nonchalance to our surroundings just angered me more.

"Shut up."

Floating in a cramped crate in the middle of the ocean isn't all the sunshine and rainbows that everyone thinks it is. Not that anyone ever thinks that. I hope.

Anyway.

It's hot. And stuffy. And crowded. Even by yourself it would be annoying.

But it gets worse when your increasingly frustrating older brother is in it with you and is absolutely calm when all you want to do is freak out.

I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but after this, I just might say that I am.

The waves were rocking our little crate around and I immediately slammed my hands against the sides to stabilize ourselves. When we first got tossed off the boat, I thought we were going to die, then a few minutes later, I wished we had.

After the little wooden box and my stomach had first stopped rolling around, I panicked a little, wondering how we were floating.

Frank, of course, being Frank, launched into some science lesson that would have usually put me to sleep. But I was still panicking, sadly, so I stayed awake through it all. He is so_ irritating_. And I know for a fact he does it on purpose.

Which is why we are in this little box of death right now, with hardly any air and no rescue plan, that i know of at least.

Dad had sent us on a search and recover mission which ended up with us stowing away on a ship. We managed to retrieve the information our dad needed without a problem. Then came the getting off the boat part.

Frank, of course, being Frank had a plan which usually gets us out of sticky situations. I stupidly trust him because I'm just an idiot like that. However, just because I go along with his plans doesn't mean I have to like it.

Like right now. I hate this box. So much.

His idea, not mine, which I can't stress enough, was to sneak into one of the crates, that had the incriminating evidence against the bad guys Dad wanted to take down, and get dumped along with the rest of the boxes into the sea where no one would find them.

This was where I pointed out that we would sink with the boxes if we did that or run out of air or drown.

Frank, of course, being Frank replied with more of his science-y stuff that we would be able to fix that problem and be able to make the crates float since they were made of wood and we would just have to make a few modifications.

Sure. Okay. I was down with that.

Then I reminded him about the air problem. In which he promptly pulled out two empty bottles from hammerspace (His bag, he brought a bag. He always does. Relax, as awesome as it would be, we don't have that. Yet.) and said we would have to be careful about using the air up, but we could keep some in the bottles.

Sure. Fine. I can deal.

Then we had tied the bottles to our wrists and snuck in the boxes to wait.

Which was when I realized how bad the idea truly was. And that was all before we got tossed.

/

I was trying to send death glares at him right now, but he had just leaned against his side of the box and gone to sleep, looking unnaturally comfortable while I floundered to stay balanced.

The first hour or so that we had been in here, I had been freaking out like I had said. Like a normal person would, you know how it is.

Then he had slapped the back of my head, not that that I didn't see that coming, and told me to stop since I was using up our precious air, so he had let out some from his bottle and told me to shush.

Which made me start raving and ranting at him. Quietly. To myself.

Luckily for me, he knows me enough to figure what I'm thinking, so I took comfort in that.

/

I was starting to drift off as well, somehow, when something scrapped against the crate, jolting me back to my panicky state.

"What was that?" I almost screamed.

"Probably the coral reef." Frank looked thoughtful. "We must be getting close to land."

Our box made another painful scraping sound and it made the hair on my arms stand on end. That wasn't the worse of it though.

Water began to seep through the cracks the rough rocks had made and I could feel us starting to sink.

"Frank!" I was beyond panicking right now and thumped on the roof of the box in an attempt to break it and free myself. "What do we do?!"

As usual, the guy thinks lightning fast, he just tends not to share the brilliance that is Frank Hardy, which is one of those things that really presses my buttons.

"Let it break." He said and stomped hard on the crack, making it bigger, which also encouraged the water.

"What?!" I screamed as the cold water touched my back. "Frank!"

"Break the top, Joe!" He said. "But at the same time as me!"

"What?! Why?!"

"Just trust me!"

I groaned in exasperation and used my right elbow to smash against the lid. He just had to say those words.

The water was already up to my neck and I knew we weren't going to be able to last long with water flooding in from the top as well.

"On three! Then hold on to the crate as hard as you can!" He yelled over at me as our holes were about the same size. "Ready?"

"One!" I yelled back and slammed my elbow upwards as hard as I could. Something broke above my head with a loud crack and I wasn't sure if it was me or the box.

Fortunately Frank knew me well enough to know how impatient I was and had managed to do it at the same time like I figured he would.

For a second, the water rushed over me and pushed me further down into the deeps, scraping me against the textured coral. I thought I was going to die and actually felt a little disappointed that it was going to be so unglamorous. I was proven wrong when the wooden pieces from the box pulled me up with a force that threw all the water out of my lungs in one burst.

I clung to the wood, gasping for air and choking like it was all I knew.

"Joe! You alright?!" I heard the desperation in his voice and almost forgave him. Just almost.

"I'm over here, Frank!" I called, my own voice raspy and painfully hoarse. "And I still hate you."

He laughed somewhere on my right and started paddling towards me. I waited for him, resting my cheek against my half of the box, and just letting the current carry me through the water.

My elbow was killing me and I'm sure all the blood from the scrapes we got would attract the sharks and all the other bloodthirsty creatures out there. Not comforting.

"So what's your next move, chief?" I said tiredly as Frank reached me. "If it's any crazier than what we've just done, then you can do it yourself. I don't want any part of it..."

"Aw, come on Joe, you know that's not true."

I huffed at him and looked somewhere else, sighing to myself. It probably was true, but he couldn't have at least tried to play along?

"Besides, I thought you were the more thrill-seeking one out of the two of us." He grinned at me as he tied our two bottles together.

I made a face. "I'm a fun seeker. That wasn't fun. At all."

Frank just laughed at me. Again. He's been doing that a lot lately. Probably too many ka-thunks on the head. I should tell him to get that checked out when we get back home. _If _we ever get back home.

A soft thumping sound approached us from above, getting louder as it got closer.

"Are those vultures that I hear?" I asked worriedly. "We aren't dead yet…right?"

"No. Relax." Frank scanned the sky. "I told you to trust me when we got in the boxes and when we had to break said boxes, so don't stop now."

"It's not really your judgment that I don't trust." I muttered to myself. "It's more me than anything."

That's when I saw the helicopters coming in the distance and changed my mind.

"You think they see us?!" I started bobbing up and down and shaking my head back and forth since my arms were both occupied. "Can they see us?!"

"Of course they can see us, especially when you're spasming like a maniac like that."

"Shut up. You're not helping."

"Don't need to. You're doing all the work for me."

"Cuz' I don't want the sharks to get me."

"It'll be fine."

"How can you say that?"

"Because I'm always right and you know it."

"I hate you. That's what I know."

Frank, of course, being Frank, laughed at me.

/

"OW!" I wanted to hurl, and curl up in a ball, and cry but I couldn't decide which one to do first so I ended up just sitting there like the obvious idiot I am.

"Calm down, Joe. It's done" My dad's hand was on my shoulder, patting me gently. "Don't hurt the nice doctor who just fixed your arm."

"What?" I looked down to see my other hand cocked and ready to fire my fist into the guy's face. Who by the way wasn't looking too impressed.

"Oh. Sorry." I lowered my hand. "Can I go see Frank now?"

The doctor who had just pulled out all the shards of box and set my elbow, which I really did break when pieces of the wooden crate splintered and stabbed themselves in my arm, was still looking at me with his judging face but nodded and told me that Frank should be coming out of surgery soon.

Turns out, he had also ruined his leg when he broke his end of the box, but he needed more stitches than I did so they took him to surgery.

This life ain't all glitz and glamor. Though the scars are fun to show off.

I rubbed my hand over my newly cast-covered arm and eagerly looked around for a sharpie. I would get lots of my friends to sign it later, but Frank was always the first.

Other than the arm, I wasn't too worse for the wear, but I didn't like the look on my dad's face.

"I'm sorry. I should really stop making you guys do these kinds of things, even if you are good at it. What kind of father would let his kids get hurt?"

"A really cool trusting dad." I gave him a grin. "Who would be even more awesome if he had a sharpie with him."

Dad shook his head at me but reached into his pants pocket. "I'm glad you two were able to retrieve the information but it shouldn't have taken so long to find you. I hadn't been so confident about Frank's calculations. That was wrong of me."

_Wait what?_

"Frank's calculations?" I took the sharpie he handed me as I raised an eyebrow. "You knew where we were going to be?"

My dad looked sheepish and chagrined. "Yes. Frank said that the current would probably take you close to the coral reefs, he even gave me the coordinates, but if we got there in time you wouldn't have reached it at all. It was my fault that we took a little longer since I wanted to make absolutely sure it wasn't anywhere else."

"You should have trusted Frank, Dad." I said that first and thought about it right after I said it. _I should have trust Frank. Like really trust him._

"I realize that. But sometimes his plans seem just too…perfect, you know?" Dad rubbed his chin. "That kid is really something."

I smiled. Yeah. _That's my brother for you_. Its just Frank, of course, being _Frank_.

/

I didn't have to wait too long before I got to see my brother. Which was a good thing. I don't like waiting. So once I got the all clear, I stormed into his room

"Why didn't you just say that dad was coming?! It would have saved me so much pain! Saved _us_ so much pain!" Call me blunt, or straight to the point, but I like to think I'm somewhat frank (wink).

My brother lifted his head when I entered, pleased to see me. "Where's the fun in that?"

I growled and poked him with the sharpie. "I thought _I_ was the fun-seeker in the family. Let me keep my job, please?"

"Fine." He said and took the marker. "You've just been so grouchy lately, I've had to take over."

"You've been stealing my job! Of course I'll be crabby about it!"

"You were irritable way before I could touch your precious job."

"That's because you wouldn't share with me your oh-so-well-thought-out plans!"

"Would you have agreed to do them if you knew?"

"Well…I trust you, Frank." I reached up to scratch at my nose self-consciously. "I always trust you." _I always will now. Fully. I promise._

My brother looked at me, his eyes half proud half embarrassed. "I know. So…thanks."

I nudged him with my good elbow. "You'd better. Otherwise we would be dead."

"Not necessarily, I had a backup plan."

"Which was?"

"One you don't need to know."

"Which means you _didn't_ have one."

"I always have a plan."

"Sure, you just never tell me the whole of it."

"I don't want to get your hopes up in case they go wrong!"

"I won't blame you, or Dad if they did."

"No, but I would blame myself, which is bad enough."

I stifled a laugh. "You blame yourself if something fails? It's not like you're Batman, dude. And even stuff goes wrong for him. It wouldn't be your fault."

This time Frank scowled at me. "I always do. Don't bring Batman into this. And yes it would."

"See, this is why you aren't the fun one." I smirked and then stared in horror at what he drew on my cast. "What is that?"

"Don't anger the guy with the sharpie." My brother chuckled and put the sharpie behind his back, leaning against the bed, preventing me from changing what he wrote. "But you're so cute when you're mad, Joe." He said in a falsetto.

"Math equations?! Really?!" I frantically scrubbed at the symbols now scrawled all over my arm. "My math teacher is going to pick on me even more now! And don't mock me."

"I wasn't mocking you, I was merely mocking your fans."

"They are not my fans, and don't change the subject!"

"Equations are nice. They are like a whole different language."

"One I don't need my teacher to read. She's mean to me."

"She is? She seems to like me."

"Then you won't cry when I say I hate you."

"You love me. You know it."

"No. I hate you." _I love you, Frank. _

"I love you too, bro."

* * *

_Disclaimer: I don't own the HB _

_Frank is such a kind older brother, always looking out for Joe as well as himself, which made me think that he would probably try and shoulder a lot of things by himself, which I feel is what makes him such a wonderful sibling. He cares._

_The last story was about Joe's sacrifices for Frank, so this one was more about Frank's sacrifices for Joe. You know, with great power comes great responsibility and what not, so the more things he knows, the more responsibility he has over it. _

_I thought about doing something like I did with Frank's POV, but then this was just so much more fun. Don't you think?_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey there! Itsa me!_

_And no, this isn't another chapter of Confessions, but I might do more... if i can think of any..._

_Anyhoo, I had been thinking of doing a new story, to get me in the mood to finish the other one (haha, my logic is so flawed, but oh well), and came up with this. _

_It's much more serious than anything I've ever posted up here, at least for HB, but i wanted to try doing something new._

_This is just a sample._

_Let me know if you want me to continue it or just scrap it._

_It's in Frank's POV, since I'm on a Frank Roll (haha! that sounds funny) and the boys are 17 and 16. _

* * *

It had started out like a normal day. They always seem to don't they?

We had been wrangled out of bed by our parents and shuffled down the stairs for breakfast.

Joe is hardly ever in a good mood when he wakes up so it had been funny to tease him about his bed head.

My mom had laughed at us and told us to play nice.

My dad had smiled and her and said that boy will be boys. That clichéd phrase I thought I had gotten tired of a long time ago.

What I would give to hear that again.

Nothing felt out of the ordinary. It really had just felt like a normal day.

No cases. No bad guys after our dad or us that we knew of.

Our mom didn't have a business conference out of town.

Aunt Gertrude or Aunt Trudy on one of her better days, had gone up to visit some of their old friends and our parents were going to join them today, but for now we were all together. Happy.

But I guess that's why the greater the height, the harder you fall.

/

We had gone to school, done all the normal things that we would have done on a normal day. It started raining, so our dad told us to take his car while he and mom would head up with Aunt Trudy's bug that she had left behind. That in itself should have set off more alarms in my head, but hey, it was just rain right?

Then I should have started to suspect something when both Joe and I were called to the principal's office, but then that was still part of our so-called normal.

Finally, something started inching up my suspicion nerves when I saw how many people were in the room. The principal, the vice principal, the student counselor, the guidance counselor, that usually can't be a good thing. But I hadn't thought much about it, I had just assumed it was a big problem that the principal wanted Joe and I to fix. Not out of the ordinary.

Joe always likes to remind me how right I always am.

I have never felt so wrong in my life.

/

Which I how I found myself right now, sitting in the chair across from the principal's desk with Joe next to me. Everyone except for the principal was standing. Waiting close by as if to catch us if we fell out of our chairs.

The next few minutes felt like hours as they just stared at us, trying to figure out the words to say.

I didn't realize I had been gripping the arm of the chair until my hand started aching. Joe had started staring at the ground, his eyes were wide and his jaw clenched. In a way, I guess in the back of our minds, we kind of knew.

"Just say it." I had never heard him sound so fierce before. "It's not like the suspense is killing me or anything."

His mouth was turned up in a sarcastic grin, but his eyes were hard and cold.

My mouth felt so dry but I managed to choke out a few words.

"What happened to them?"

The adults looked like they actually got shot and wished someone would shot them at the same time.

Bayport wasn't the biggest place, everyone knew a lot of people, especially the famous Fenton Hardy.

"We're so sorry. But there's been an accident…"

The words hit me harder than anything I've ever felt before.

It was like something out of a bad TV drama. The words were just so…used, but you'd never think it would be said to you.

Even if you live like us, a life filled with so much unknown danger, something like this wasn't unexpected. Luck runs out. I just didn't expect it to so soon.

I felt my heart drop to my stomach, felt it lie on the bottom and start to slowly shrivel into nothingness. My limbs were frozen to the chair. I felt like I was encase in Jell-O and I couldn't move.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Joe's hands begin to shake and his body trembled slightly. His hair had fallen over his eyes, blocking his expression but I knew he was probably feeling the same thing I was.

"…the roads must have been unstable and especially with all the rain… there was a big crash and a couple cars ran off the road and off the cliff. Your parent's car was one of them. They are searching for it now but…"

The sound of chair legs scraping against the floor made me look at Joe who had gotten out of his chair.

His fists were clenched so tightly together that his fingertips were red and his knuckles practically glowed white.

"Excuse me." He mumbled and dashed out of the room.

The counselors looked a bit shocked that he didn't throw a fit and made a move to go after him.

"I got this." I held out my hand, then put it back down when it started to shake uncontrollably. "Thanks for letting us know. We…won't be attending the rest of our classes today…sorry."

I immediately hurried out after my brother who was headed for the car park.

"Joe." I called.

He ignored me and just kept walking forward. I ran up to him and grabbed his arm before he could walk out of the shelter and into the pouring rain.

"Stop." I said and pulled him into an embrace, squeezing him as tightly as I could into me, as if it would make the pain go away."

We stayed like that for a while, the beating rain against the pavement an unsettlingly soothing ambience. I stood in silence, not knowing what to say, not wanting anything to say.

I could feel him trembling under me, or that could have been me. My vision blurred and I wondered if it had always been this hard to breathe.

Joe's hands were still in fists at his sides and his jaw locked forward as he stared at Dad's car getting drenched outside.

"Well…we can join Disney now, Frank." His voice was tight with pain, but it was like he was trying to get me to laugh.

So I did. A little.

"Don't kid yourself." I tried to play along. "You aren't that great of a dancer."

He didn't respond, but lunged instead at the wall behind me, attempting to drive his fist into it. He had given up trying to conceal it, unleashing his pain at full force.

I had felt his body move and preempted his strike, so I swiveled my body round making his fists hit the air instead of the rough surface.

Joe continued to punch the air for a couple more seconds, flailing wildly at some unseen force around us, while I held him down, feeling almost like if I let him go, I would lose him too.

Tired of it, he finally slumped against me, his head falling on my shoulder and his arms wrapping around me.

"Please tell me this isn't real, Frank." He whispered so softly I wouldn't have heard him if he hadn't been on my shoulder. "This can't be happening, right? We can't lose them like this."

I felt warm tears soak through my t-shirt and my blurred vision cleared, trailing down my cheeks in sync with the rain.

"Please…no. Please please please."

I still wasn't saying anything, but I felt my body move on its own, moving my hand to stroke the back of his head.

I felt so hollow inside. It hurt so much, but it was so numb at the same time.

"We have to go out there and check." Joe paused to sniffle and started pushing himself away from me. "We have to go and search for them too, they could still be out there, Frank. We have to find them. We have to-"

"Shhh." I pulled him back against me. "Stop."

I didn't allow myself to say more than a word. I didn't trust myself with more.

"We have to go see!" Joe began to struggle in my grasp. "Frank, I have to see for myself! Let me go!"

"Not now, Joe."

"But they are out there! Mom and Dad are out there! They are waiting for us to find them! Frank! We have to-" A sob wrenched itself out of his mouth, interrupting him and punching through the last few strings keeping my heart together.

"Would you stop being so reckless all the time?! The roads are unstable! We can't go out there! You heard them!" I held his shoulders in a death grip and looked him in the eyes, letting everything I felt pour through my eyes. "I can't lose you too, alright?!...Not now…"

My brother's gaze mirrored mine. "But Mom and Dad are out there..."

I wanted to scream and cry and break something and do absolutely nothing all at the same time.

* * *

_Disclaimer: I don't own the HB_

_Like i said earlier, this is just a sample._

_But I'm curious if you guys like it enough for me to continue it, since its kinda depressing. haha._

_Let me know what you think! _

_And thank you for always reading and reviewing when you can. It means so much to me :). Both good and helpful. _


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